It always depends how much of a gambler you are, and how much you can afford to risk. It adds a bit to your premium to protect a NCB (your stake). You may not claim this year, or something nasty may happen costing rather more. Then something less nasty may happen and you have to decide whether to claim, or pay for a modest repair without claiming so your premium doesn't go up next year.

At the end of the day it will depend how much you can risk, and how much you are willing to pay for peace of mind - feathering the nests of the insurers.

I never buy these optional 'add-ons' - extended warranties, protected NCBs - put the saving in your piggy-bank and use that if (IF) something happens. When it doesn't, carry it over to next year or have a night out.

Edited by Andrew-T on 23/01/2023 at 12:11

I suppose we make our own choices to suit our own circs.

Personally i've always protected the policy, even though i would not make a claim under about £1000 worth of damage and instead sort it myself.

The way i look at it is this, you have major accident you get the blame which is easy enough these days even if you arn't at fault, your insurance immediately ends.

Without protecting you renew somewhere at a much higher full price, maybe twice the previous premium and start again ncd building again from scratch, so maybe £500 extra this time, £350 extra next year, £250 the year after that?, those are only figures of the top of my head, whatever i'd rather pay the extra £30/50 to protect the policy...being of advanced years our insurances are so cheap i don't think protecting the policies cost us anything at all.

Presumably you are using a comparsion site for quotes, remember some companies (NFU, Direct Line) don't feature on the usual sites, DL have their own website for auto quotes, i've been with DL a few years now and am finding no reason at all to move on.